Tuesday, June 23, 2015

It is finally finished! I had to wait to see what cluster I would be assigned next school year before I could finish my plans. In my 11 years of teaching experience I've taught the "regular" cluster, "learning disabled" cluster and "ESOL" cluster. Next year I'll have students in my classroom who have been labeled gifted. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. After next year I'll consider myself a "well rounded educator". But until that point I'll be researching and taking some professional development about strategies to teach gifted students.

Here is a link to my long range plans. Next school year I'm going to need some more challenging activities for my students so I've changed the way I do Word Study and added PBL Units (those are not noted in the plans). I also hope to incorporate Genius Hour. I'm still researching that topic, hope to blog about it later on this summer.

Monday, June 22, 2015

In May I blogged about Parent Communication and I had an inquiry about the Weekly Newsletters I send home. I finally got them tweaked and while I was at it I made some Monthly Calendar templates, with dates and without. These templates are in PowerPoint which will allow you to add text boxes for full customization.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

One thing that I pride myself on is my ability to keep my parents informed. In May I blogged about Parent Communication. I keep our classroom website updated and I send home weekly newsletters. I also send home classroom reminders as needed. My goal for next school year is to actually send them home for every event... from Early Dismissal to Tests to School Pictures.

Now that I'm on summer vacation I've been able to reformat and condense them. I use to copy two to a page, I made these four to a page. These reminders are unique to my classroom but you may be able to use some of them in your own classroom.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Yesterday as the last day of school and I'm looking forward to summer vacation. This was one of my best years yet so it was hard to say goodbye. There were a couple of tears shed but there was mostly smiles and laughter as we wrapped up our time together.

My day started with my husband taking me to Bob Evans for a End of the School Year Breakfast.

Mr. Saunders and I

This is me and my colleague/friend/sister from another mister. She was a first year teacher and she is amazing! Can't wait bring our A game next year, as we'll be planning together.

Kaitlyn and I

The night ended at the John Marshall Hotel as we celebrated our niece's Sweet 16 Party. It was an "all white" affair and I had a blast dancing the night away... and I don't dance so that was huge!

Mr. Saunders and I dressed in All-White

Our niece Bryana was absolutely beautiful!

#1- My most favorite thing about summer vacation is the time I get to spend with family and friends. During the school year that time is limited to the weekends and maybe a couple of weeknights if I'm lucky but during the summer the sky is the limit! This particular summer I'll be planning one of best friends baby shower for September. Can't wait the arrival of Peanut!

#2- I have a list of resources I want to create for The Teaching Oasis and for my 3rd Grade classroom. I'm much more creative when I have time when I have time to process all the ideas that come to mind.

#3- I usually do some long range planning during the summer but I want to couple that with some actual lesson plans. I'm looking into using Planbook.com this upcoming school year, I've heard great things about it.